In our study of Torah in the Ruach class this morning I was struck again by the notion that it was alright to beat Olive trees in order for them to release their fruit.  It is not scripturally o.k. to cut down trees during battle or afterwards when conquered people are put to the sword. This is confusing to me and I wonder what the Olive trees feel about this ancient practice. Actually, I never had heard about this method of obtaining Olives until I came across it in our reading of the weekly portion of Deuteronomy. Perhaps one of my readers can come to my aid by explaining it.

I think that perhaps this is where the unripe green Olive comes from.  The tree doesn’t let the fruit fall until it is ripe and black; can this be the explanation?  Now, Greek Olives are another story. I pass these up. They are greasy, are twisted into tortured shapes and taste different from the other varieties.  What I am particularly interested in are two other varieties of Olives.  My earliest childhood memory of being made sick by eating a specific food is the Olive with cream cheese and sliced salmon sandwich I ingested on a trip to a hotel in the rural part of New Jersey that was famed for hostelling city dwellers during hot summers.  I have never liked smoked salmon and have never knowingly eaten it since that time.

My question involves how the Olive knows how to put pimentos in it and get bottled up with a whole lot of other green Olives with that red stuff in them?  My second question involves the Olive that comes in what I guess is the alcoholic drink, a martini.  Why is this attractive or necessary?  I don’t drink and can never remember having tasted a martini.  Does it taste different with an onion in it?  Does it taste any better with an Olive in it?

I am returning to the title of this piece which refers to “beating Olive trees”.  I can

understand desiring green Olives because I have gotten to love their taste again – occasionally.  But can we justify beating the trees?  Would not the trees refuse to give fruit if so abused?  It is reported in the Bible so I guess the practice is true. But the tree must care.  Surely there is a better way.

The justification for keeping the trees but cutting down the people is easily understood. The trees bring us food each year but people have harmed us and their children might also.  There are rules for dealing with each. But there are a great many questions about the rules in Deuteronomy that come from an earlier time and I think have few lessons for us – particularly when one is expected to beat Olive trees. I am troubled by this because I am that city boy of long ago who has grown up to be a city man.